Just thought you'd all like to know that I was punched, grabbed and assaulted by a Scientologist who also broke my camera housing and tried to steal my camera from me.

It happened during a peaceful Anonymous protest this last Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 5:30 PM at 601 N. Aurora, Seattle, WA.

The background is that we arrived for a protest and were waiting for a few other Anons to arrive. Crrepy Scilon was sitting in his truck in the middle of The Org parking lot, rolled his window down and asked us to come over to talk.

We had a 5 minute conversation where he claimed to not know anything about Scientology or Anonymous before finally revealing that he does take Scn courses at The Org.

We went our way and he got back in his truck.

15 minutes later he gets out of the truck as I am walking by, gets REALLY aggressive and then starts asking if I think I'm funny or a tough guy. As I switch on my camera to start recording this craziness he suddenly assaults me.

Our local forum mods have posted this at Enturbulation.org but I mainly hang out here and our local Seattle forum as I can't keep up with Enturb... too much like trying to drink water from a firehose.

Unfortunately we couldn't get the cameras turned around and recording him fast enough to get the assault as it was sudden and came out of nowhere.

The Seattle PD which had just about always been awesome until this episode were so bad that it was almost like getting assaulted twice.

The cops arrived and said that by answering his questions and even eaving to him I was singling him out for harrassment. How that can be I have NO idea. She also said since I was guilty of recording audio on someone, even my own attacker, that I was the suspect in this case and not him.

Seattle PD also said they were not interested in anything my TWO witnesses had to say and they would not ask Scientology if they could review their own rooftop security cam that was pointed right at the assault.

So evidently Wonderland is part of the Seattle PD jurisdiction and Scientology is the Queen of Hearts.

Seattle PD also refused to make an arrest or file a report without my ID and name-farking me to the Scilons.

I specifically asked if they could shield my ID or list me as John Doe through some victim right's law and she refused.

Seattle PD also said that arresting him for assault would mean arresting me for harrassment and illegal recording.

Since I am not willing to expose my loved ones to evil creepy Scientology fair-gaming and I am not willing to be a name-farked martyr for the group to be dragged into court for the rest of my life like the Anon in Boston there was nothing else I could think of.

I am filing complaints and trying to get this officer's name and reach this officer's supervisor or watch captain but progress is slow.

I wanted to give you all a head's up about this, give the Seattle Scilons some sunlight disinfectant and share this info that the Org heads are so downstat and getting so desperate that they will resort to seriously crazy tactics to get names and discourage Anonymous.

"Every religion has its problems and detractors, but when most EVERYONE sees that yours is a cult and a scam there just might be a real problem..."

We were on a public sidewalk next to a busy highway. At no time were we on Scientology property or in their parking lot, except for when the cop directed me to the middle of the parking lot for an interview.

Improper suspicious behavior for the Seattle PD to force the victim to be interviewed on the property of the attacker????

As for local statutes about two person consent being required, friendly lawyer Anon posted the following useful info on Federal Law which trumps local and state law.

"When the femcop stated you were not allowed to record audio she was (improperly) referencing Title I of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (18 U.S.C. Section 2510). This law is drilled into the heads of all low level cops because violating it has let many many criminals off the hook. What it says is that suripticiously recording audio where one has a reasonable expectation of privacy without a warent is a violation of the 4th amendments protection from unwarented search and seizure. It specifically allows the govt to make warentless video recordings without audio as the Supreme Court found that that was in line with the "Plain sight" exemption.

Where she was off is numerous. There is specific exemption for persons "not under the color of the law" aka noncops.

"(d) It shall not be unlawful under this chapter for a person not acting under color of law to intercept a wire, oral, or electronic communication where such person is a party to the communication or where one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent to such interception unless such communication is intercepted for the purpose of committing any criminal or tortious act in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States or of any State. "

If one party in the conversation(aka you) gives consent it is legal. Only to police does it explicately require notification of all parties. Anytime you are recording audio in public you should have a copy of this law on your person because the cops are trained poorly about it and are not aware of said exemption.

Also see Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347. This court case created a test to determine if one has a reasonable assumption of privacy. No judge would find that an individual on a street corner talking to multiple unknown to him masked individuals has such."

Of course this info isn't too helpful if the cop has it in her mind that you are wrong and is threatening to arrest you if you don't drop your complaint.

Assaulted once by Crazy Scientologist. Assaulted psychologically 30 minutes later by Seattle PD.

"Every religion has its problems and detractors, but when most EVERYONE sees that yours is a cult and a scam there just might be a real problem..."

I specifically asked the cop about filing a report with me as a John Doe. She said the only way she could move forward on this would be by name-farking me to the Scientologists in a public record police report.

Evidently this cop would only feel compelled to take action if I was bleeding and unconscious. Too bad I didn't think of that right?

I am in contact with the police supervisors to have this investigated and see why this was handled so badly on their end.

"Every religion has its problems and detractors, but when most EVERYONE sees that yours is a cult and a scam there just might be a real problem..."

Sorry to read about this. The cop was right on one point, Washington is a "two party" or "all party" state. All parties must be aware of the camera when recording a conversation. However, in your situation there are a couple other issues you had on your side that overrode this law.

As for local statutes about two person consent being required, friendly lawyer Anon posted the following useful info on Federal Law which trumps local and state law.

The federal wiretapping law does not test out to trump state law.
http://www.rcfp.org/taping/ especially the section "Consent and its limits" which deals with video cameras.

In your case, from what I understand there was no expectation of privacy, nor was your camera hidden. It was in plain view, hence what you were doing was legal, just not for the reasons stated above. (I had a class in this type of law as well as participated in taped phone calls when working on a legal story when my college was debating suing the board of trustees. Take my experience for what it is worth...nothing more.)

I protested seattle march, april and may and the scientolgist were acting like freaks. that kid alvin is completly innocent..its to bad that they kids are taking the heat for all the x scientologist hidding...I don,t respect x scientologist that have no balls and are all ways kissing scientology ass.. I had 40 years of the way they do things.... all ways run and hide..thats the only reason scientology is the way it is to day.. few stand up to scietology and tell them strate...god bless the x scientologist that protest...and god bless anon for there brave stand for they know that freedom is worth standing up for... and the drones inside scientology do not have a clue.

Don't let it go. Keep following up with the PD. It's not too late to at least get a report filed and a warrant out. Be polite with the cops, but don't back off either. Be a very sincerely polite nuisance who happens to be right and won't go away.

I would also contact your local media. Give them the story and the footage.

Somebody has to speak for these people.... no more running. I aim to misbehave.... If you can't do something smart, do something right. (Serenity)